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Smartphones Are Selling Like Crazy

According to market research firm IDC, vendors shipped 54.5 million smartphone devices in the fourth quarter of 2009, an increase of 39% compared to the same period in 2008.

A lot of this growth can be attributed to Apple and its iPhone, which has grown from 9.1% market share in 2008 to 14.4% in 2009, shipping 8.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2009. Although some reports claim Apple's smartphone market share has dropped compared to the third quarter of 2009, Apple can still be satisfied with its impressive overall growth.

BlackBerry manufacturer RIM lately hasn't been getting as much press as some other manufacturers, but it's also doing very well, with its market share rising from 15.6% to 19.8% in 2009. Besides RIM, Apple and Nokia (which still holds the first spot in the smartphone market, slightly dropping from 40.0% in 2008 to 38.9% in 2009), the other two names in the top five list are HTC and Samsung with 4.6% and 3.3% market share, respectively. However, this list might get rearranged soon, as Motorola has had significant success with its Droid, shipping 2.5 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to just 1.6 million in the same period in 2008.

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